Stanwood High has new head football coach

Stanwood High School football coach Doug Trainor has announced he will not return for the 2013 season. He will be replaced by former Monroe coach Dave Telford.

Trainor resigned after one season, citing his inability to secure a full-time teaching position at Stanwood.

“It was my intent to be an eventual teacher at Stanwood High School upon taking the football job,” Trainor said in a letter to the families of his players. “Philosophically and practically, having the coach on staff at the high school is the cornerstone of having a successful football program. After two hiring cycles (spring of 2012 and 2013), I was not offered a full-time position at the high school. I have no confidence moving forward, nor have I been given any inclination that a full-time teaching position will be in consideration for the fall of 2013.”

Trainor, who teaches in Bellingham, said he had to know by June 19 whether a job would be available in order to inform his current employer whether or not he would be back. When nothing was available at Stanwood, he tendered his resignation.

In the letter, Trainor said Stanwood athletic director Tom Wilfong worked “diligently to create a teaching position, but could not get the go-ahead on a full-time job.”

Trainor, who led the Spartans to a 4-6 record in his lone season, said he appreciated Wilfong’s efforts and commended the AD for his dedication to fielding a quality football program.

Telford, the son of former Stanwood football coach Phil Telford, graduated from Stanwood in 1984 and went on to play quarterback at Fresno State University. He started his coaching career at Fresno State before going on to coach at the high school level. He served as an assistant coach at Stanwood in 2005 and 2006 before moving on to Havelock High School in North Carolina as an assistant.

He returned to Washington in 2008 and took over as the head coach at Monroe High School, where he coached for three seasons before resigning in 2010 to take a job as an assistant football coach at Indiana State University.

“The program could not be in better hands,” Trainor wrote of Telford’s hiring. “He will bring stability moving forward and our student-athletes deserve that.”